The present disclosure relates to person support apparatuses, such as beds, cots, stretchers, operating tables, recliners, or the like. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to person support apparatuses that include load cells.
Existing hospital beds and/or stretchers often include a load cell system that is used to detect the weight of an occupant of the bed or stretcher, and/or that is used as an exit detection system. When functioning as a scale system, the outputs of the load cells are read and a weight of the occupant is detected. When functioning as an exit detection system, the outputs of the load cells are read and used to detect when a patient has exited the bed or stretcher, or when a patient may be about to exit the bed or stretcher.
Often, conventional load cell systems include a processor or microcontroller that monitors the outputs of the load cells and detects an error state if one or more of the load cells report force values that are outside of an expected range. For example, if an individual load cell is designed in the person support apparatus to sense weights between 0 and 500 pounds, and that load cell outputs a voltage corresponding to 700 pounds, the processor or microcontroller interprets this as an error state.